Ten
by Arisa Aihara
Summary: 10 things that bind us together. 10 things that define us, no matter how mundane they are. 10 things that make you and me the way we are.


Ten things that bind us together. Ten things that define us, no matter how mundane they are. Ten things that make you and me the way we are.

* * *

**Blood**

He had calmly called for her when the accident happened, and she came to him with the apron still on and a spatula in one hand. Despite the fact that the sight of his own blood freaked the Tonosamagekomon out of him, he played it cool as she sighed, shook her head, smiled, fetched the first-aid kit, and attended to his wound.

"Looks like the shelf will have to wait," she said before giving him a quick kiss on the cheek, "the handyman's injured."

When, however, after mere minutes, the bandage was soaked in blood, she grew worried and said, "Maybe the cut's deeper than it seems... I think you might need stitches – c'mon, I'll drive you to the clinic."

If only she'd heard the blonde whimper in fear!

**Hold Your Breath**

"Oh, no. What is it now?"

"They're trying to see who could hold his breath longer under water."

"Oh _no."_

"Hey, I heard that!" the blonde said from inside the pool. "It wasn't _my _idea – it was Daisuke—!"

"Well, are you up for it then?" Daisuke cut across his words. "C'mon, it's the ultimate battle!"

"You said the same thing last week during the paintball match."

"That one doesn't count!"

"What about last month when you forced me to eat God knows how many bowls of ramen just to see who could eat the most? You said _that _was the ultimate battle."

"Well, it's time for a new ultimate battle since it's been a month already!"

"Guhh...Daisuke..."

"Whatsamatter? Can't do it? Ha! You could totally beat me in basketball, but not this!"

"Why, I didn't know holding your breath is your thing, Daisuke. I thought it's soccer?"

"It's just one of my many talents, Takaishi – now will you accept this challenge?"

"Ignoring your challenges is one of _my _many talents, Motomiya."

"Ha! COWARD! Ne, Hika-chan, what kind of choice is this? You're getting married to a–"

"Hey, hey, hey! No one, and I mean _no one, _can doubt Hikari's choice of marrying me, okay?"

"So," said Miyako, walking towards the pool where the two frenemies were, "shall I start the clock now, or are you guys not done yet?"

"Bring it on!" said the blonde.

"You're going _down!" _said the spiky haired one, pulling his goggles down.

"Okay – in three, two one, GO!"

**Afraid**

He was momentarily distracted. Who wouldn't be? Yamato had finally managed to tackle Taichi to the sandy ground in the battle to possess the beach ball (which, instead of being an amazingly normal item, had been turned into a symbol of power for their beach trip, just for the heck of it). Everyone began to cheer as Koushiro and Jyou joined in.

No one seemed to have noticed that she had fallen behind: she was busy taking pictures of a crab in the sand, and he only noticed how far away she was from the rest of the Chosen Children when he wanted to remind her to take pictures of the struggle to posses the All Powerful Beach Ball.

Noticing that it was getting dark, he called out her name – she looked up, took one last picture of the crab, and ran towards him. She laughed with the rest at the silliness of Taichi and Yamato, and was generally unaware of how tight his grip on her hand was.

To this day, he was still afraid of losing her to the Dark Ocean.

**Cleaning**

It was that time of the year again.

The Annual Ishida Ultimate Super Mega "THIS-IS-IT" Cleaning Spree (sometimes shortened to just, "Dad couldn't take niisan's crap in the house anymore.")

So it was no surprise to any of the neighbours when the outside of apartment 202 was lined with boxes filled with junks. The three Ishida men (well, okay, two Ishida men and one Takaishi) were hard at work inside: everything was pretty much done, but Dad still wanted to paint the wall.

"Since we're at it, why not do it, right?"

"Better now than never."

Yamato had pretty much been against the whole idea of The Annual Ishida Ultimate Super Mega "THIS-IS-IT" Cleaning Spree, so painting the wall was really a bothersome idea to him. Dad and Little Brother received a lot of shouting in the process, especially when it came to peeling off his posters.

"PEEL IT OFF CAREFULLY, DAMMIT!"

But of course, the meal they had after The Annual Ishida Ultimate Super Mega "THIS-IS-IT" Cleaning Spree had been successfully carried out was simply wonderful.

**Beginnings**

"...I can't remember exactly _when _I've first met you."

She rolled her eyes, and pointed out that it didn't matter. It was impossible to trace back when they had first laid eyes on each other, because the Chosen Children all originated from Odaiba. They _must _have met before their little adventure in the Digital World started – and he wanted to know exactly _when._

"Daisuke could go on and on about that one perfect time when he had first met you... But I can't even _remember _when..."

She sighed. So is this what it's all about, she had asked, another Takeru VS Daisuke thing? Well, it didn't matter to her, because they could always create a new beginning: that was when she revealed that in nine months, they'd have a Little Takaishi in the house.

And that, indeed, was a new beginning.

**Book**

He found her curled up on the sofa near the bookshelf one evening, so he joined her. She giggled as he kissed her neck and cuddled her in his arms, but her temper changed when he criticised the book she was reading.

"What's this? _Twilight?"_ He then proceeded to laughing at the cover of the book.

"Well, what's wrong with Twilight? I like it," she snapped, taking the book back from him, pressing it to her chest. Much to her annoyance, he did not stop laughing.

"What's wrong with it? Oh, nothing at all!" he said, still chuckling. "But – but it amuses me highly!"

She folded her arms. "Care to explain?"

Noticing her serious tone of voice, he finally stopped chuckling and sat up straighter. "For starters – _he glitters in the—"_

Seeing her deadly glare made him decide not to continue the issue.

"Ahem. Okay, well...why do you like Twilight then?"

"Because," she said, "Edward is a sweet guy – a tad bit controlling, maybe – but he's always there to catch Bella when she falls."

This somehow was funny to him, so he exploded with laughter. She hit him hard on the shoulder with her copy of Twilight, but he did not stop.

"Ow! Okay, I'm – haha...! I'm so...sorry...!" It took him a while to calm down, and when he did, he merely grinned at her. "I'm really sorry – there's nothing wrong with liking Twilight, it's a great book. But...you're Hikari _freakin' _Yagami! You _don't_ _need _some strong, protective guardian angel or whatever to catch you when you fall. Heck, you'd grow wings and fly to safety on your own if you ever fall!"

She didn't seem to know what to say, so he cuddled her again.

"You're a brave girl, Hikari," he went on, "and I highly admire you for that. I _love _you for that."

The evening passed on rather well afterwards, and she seemed to have forgiven him for insulting the book. But several days later, he could not find Twilight on the bookshelf. He did, however, find new books with stronger female lead characters.

**Tears**

"Oh, my babies! What's the matter? Why are you crying?"

"Shut it – _sob – _Mimi!"

"Can you – _sob, sob – _pass me the tissue please?"

He looked around and found a box of tissue sitting on the oven. "Here you go, Koushiro – _sob – _Koushiro-san!"

"Tha-aa-anks."

He heard Sora stifle a snort as she washed the dishes. "Is this really the first time you guys chop onions?"

Jyou gave an almighty sob and wiped his eyes on his sleeve. "Yes, it's _my _first time for sure."

"But it's going to be worth it, right?" Iori piped in, fighting hard to keep his eyes open. "It _is _for the anniversary, after all."

"I know it is," said Taichi, who had taken his goggles back from Daisuke and was wearing them, "but why do you have to give us this task?"

"Well, you wanted to help in the kitchen, didn't you?" Hikari said. She was eyeing the oven, mittens on her hands, ready to take out the chicken once it's done. They were at Mimi's house – in the kitchen, to be specific. The guys had insisted earlier that they wanted to help make this Digi Anniversary worth it, so they pretty much volunteered to help around in the kitchen for once. So Mimi had cunningly instructed them to chop the onions (the amount of chopped onions might be more than actually required, but the boys wouldn't know, anyway!).

"I never knew..._sob..._that chopping onions could be so..._sob...sob – sob—"_

"Tissue?" he kindly offered to Ken, who took it with a word of thanks.

"Is 'difficult' the word you were looking for, Teeks?" came a confident, proud voice near the sink. Yamato, of course, was rather used to doing kitchen-related chores such as chopping onions. It was easy-peasy, he had said. The blonde shook his head, smirking at the rest of the guys. "Wasting tears over chopped onions. You bunch of sissies."

"_Shut it, Yamato!"_

**Kiss**

"Takeru."

"Hmm?"

"You've kissed other girls than me, right?"

"Well..." He really did not know what made her ask him this, but he didn't want to screw up this question – not on their fancy dinner night. He had had some troubles booking a table, and she had had some complications with her work schedule, but now that they were both here, he most certainly did not want to mess this up.

"I'm just curious, you know."

"Okay then – yea, I've kissed other girls than you," he answered wearily. "But why does that matter if you don't really care? I mean—"

"I didn't say I don't care, I said I'm just curious," she cut across him. Oh snap. Wait. Was it _that_ time of the month? What's the date? Oh Lord, it _was. _It's the twentieth – the time she usually 'got it'. He quickly reviewed ways to handle this situation – play it cool, but not too cool, as she might mistook that as being insensitive...

"I'll let you know that none of those kisses mean anything to me anymore," he said carefully.

"Did it mean anything to you _before? _Like when you kissed Catherine, when I wasn't there with you – she's pretty, from what I've heard."

He leaned against his chair, surveying her. Taichi must have told her about that kiss – the fact that neither of them had bothered to tell Hikari about it for _years _might have annoyed (or even hurt) her.

"It's just this French tradition, Hika-chan – it's called _faire la bise. _It's basically, well, you exchange kisses on the cheeks upon meeting and separating with friends or new acquaintances," he said. "Mum used to do it all the time, even in Japan – kinda shocked my Dad when they had first met."

She narrowed her eyes upon hearing this. "For all I know, you could be lying to me about—"

He quickly leaned in and kissed her on the lips. "I'll have you know that _that _was no _faire la bise," _he said, meeting her eyes steadily.

And she blushed.

**Scarred**

"Say, Takeru...?"

He leaned away when he noticed how close Sora was to him. "Uh – uh, yeah?"

"What's that?" she asked, pointing at his cheek. His hand automatically flew to that scar on his face. Before he had the time to answer, his brother was leaning in to check.

"Yea, I've never noticed that," said Yamato, frowning. Within minutes, his scar had become the centre of attention: everyone was genuinely curious about it, except for one person.

"I," he said, acting as if he was hurt, "I've been scarred...it was...a tragedy..."

Yamato slapped the back of his head. "Stop being a dork. Where choo get this from?"

He looked at the one person who looked as if he was wishing he's somewhere else, and said airily, "Did I never tell you guys before? Odd. Well. Someone whipped me. With a leash. Yeah."

Everyone began to express their shock at this statement – why, I never knew you have _that _kind of fetish! No way, the _innocent _Takeru, _a leash? _Oh, how he's all grown up!

"Where did you go for, you know, _that _sort of thing?" Daisuke asked, rather intrigued.

"Why, you wanna go and have a try?" Miyako teased, nudging the spiky haired Motomiya.

"We've been there a trillion times before," he said, catching everyone's attention once more before Miyako and Daisuke could start fighting, "and you've met the person who did this to me. In fact, he's right here with us now."

"No way!"

"Ooh, kinky...!"

"An aggressive Chosen Child? Who could it be?"

"Tell us, tell us!"

Calmly, Takeru lifted a finger and pointed.

"EHHHH?"

**Once More**

"Hikari-neechan, can I sit now? My legs are killing me-e-e!"

"Yes, yes – you can sit down now, Kira-kun – I'm so sorry I made you stand up for so long, but you did good!"

"Ne, Hikari-neechan! What about me, did I smile pretty? I tried my best!"

"Indeed, Lisa-chan, that was great!"

He merely smiled as the children bombarded Hikari with questions of their performance. She answered them patiently while adjusting the crew adjusted the lights and whatnots. It was really fun watching her put two of her favourite things together in one: photography and children. She had been offered to direct and conduct a photo shoot for the magazine _Working Mothers, _and needless to say, she was really enjoying it.

"Now, we'll have a break, okay you guys?" she was saying. "And then we can start again – go on to Uncle Matsuda – he has chocolates!"

The ten or so children who were also today's models began to run towards the man with chocolates, leaving the photographer some time to rest.

"Don't strain yourself," he said, approaching her and sitting down next to her.

"Hey! I didn't know you were coming," she said, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

"Yeah, I had some free time, so why not, right?"

Suddenly one of the models shouted out, "Hikari-neechan, is _that _the kindest man on earth you said you were going to marry?"

He looked at her quizzically, trying not to laugh. "What did you tell the children, Hika-chan?"

"Well—"

"He _is _cute!" another child piped in.

"His hair is funny though – are you from America?"

Before he knew it, he was surrounded by children with chocolate stains on their mouths and hands, all asking him questions out of pure curiosity. One boy even tried to grab his hat, saying that Hikari-neechan had mentioned something about a magical hat that would make the wearer look more handsome.

"Ahh – not the hat, please!" he pleaded, taking the hat and trying to keep it out of reach.

"Kira-kun," she called out, camera at the ready, "do that once more, please – grab the magical hat!"

Upon receiving this instruction, the children began to tackle him to the floor, and Hikari merely ignored his cries for help as she snapped away with her camera.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Books: ** For 'new books with stronger female lead characters', I had _Pride and Prejudice _and _Persuasion _in mind. Elizabeth Bennet, needless to say, is indeed a strong character, and Anne Elliot might seem demure and gentle, but I think she showed her strength when one of the characters got injured at the beach – she was the one who had instructed for a doctor to be called when everyone was basically freaking out.

**Kiss: **_Faire la bise – _I pretty much googled it up, so I'm sorry if I got it wrong, lol! Correct me if I'm wrong, please. Thanks!

**Scarred: **Of course I'm referring to that one episode where Takeru was a complete badass and Falcon Punched the Digimon Kaizer in his own headquarters! :3

Did you enjoy this? I certainly did enjoy writing it. It's been so long since I've written anything for Digimon. I also noticed that some prompts are shorter than others... (=..=) So I'm sorry about that! XD

Prompts taken from _10 Prompts _on LiveJournal. :D


End file.
